In the current state of the art, a managed client-server network uses communications servers to manage RTP media packet exchange between network clients. In a simplified example of a representative process of current art practices, it can be seen that the server not only manages the process of establishing a communications session between clients, but also handles each of the high volume of RTP media packets exchanged between the clients (during the communications session between the clients). This is expensive both in terms of network bandwidth and server usage efficiency.
An improved approach would be a scheme where the communications server does not need to handle each of the RTP media packets being exchanged between communicating clients. In a public network (without the inclusion of firewalls), this can be accomplished simply by providing the clients with one another's network address, and then allowing the clients to communicate (exchange RTP media packets) directly with one another, without passing the packets through the communications server.
When a well-known firewall or network address translator (NAT) resides between the one or both clients and the communications server, the direct exchange of RTP media packets between clients can be a more complex process.